Army camp, police station attacked; tanks & choppers used for ﬁrst time to repulse rebels

Twelve persons, including a Lieutenant Colonel, died in two militant attacks on police and Army formations in Kathua and Samba districts of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday.

The fidayeen offensive came after a pause of over ten years in Jammu province. The two gunfights happened close to the international border between India and Pakistan.

Deputy Inspector General of Police, Jammu-Kathua range, Shakeel Beg told The Hindu that four men of the J&K police, three Army personnel, including the second-in-command of 16 Cavalry, and two civilians were killed even as the security forces killed all the three militants in the daylong gunfight. Four helicopters and some tanks were for the first time used in a counter-insurgency operation in the strife-ravaged State.

Informed sources revealed that the three unidentified militants in combat military uniform, who were believed to have infiltrated through the meticulously fenced international border in the Raj Bagh area on Tuesday, appeared in an interior neighbourhood of Hiranagar, in Kathua district, in the morning. They commandeered a load-carrier at gunpoint, and on sighting a police station at Hiranagar, they alighted and trooped into the premises, killing the sentry. There they killed three more policemen and injured three others.

The militants also fired upon the driver and left him wounded when he attempted to escape. Thereafter, they hijacked a truck towards the highway after killing its cleaner who reportedly offered resistance. They abandoned the truck on the highway and used another vehicle to reach an Army camp at Samba, on the road to Jammu.

Both the drivers later revealed to the police that there were three militants. Sources said the three heavily armed militants stormed the military formation and took positions close to the officers’ mess. Two soldiers and a Lt Colonel died and two more soldiers sustained injuries. The DIG Jammu said that early reports of six fatal casualties were not true. Some officials initially mistook the injured for the dead, he added.

The spokesperson of a little known militant outfit Al-Shuhada Brigade reportedly told local newspaper offices that its fidayeen — Mohammad Akram, Furqanul Haq and Engineer Vikas — carried out the attack. He claimed that all the three were from Jammu.

It is so pathetic when this attack happens, our PM is talking peace with Pak PM. When we will ever learn from US / Israel ? Why we don't have guts to stop all contacts with Pak (begin with first expel Pak mission from India) including the so called people to people or economy ties? It is ridiculous that such a big country can't deal with this small menace for such a long time.

from:
sudar

Posted on: Sep 27, 2013 at 01:34 IST

ManMohan is calm & wants talks with Pakistan since only Army faces all dangers and only its men are being killed . If any of MPs or congress personnel are threatened ,Man Mohan would have acted.

from:
Prof R Krishanmurthy

Posted on: Sep 27, 2013 at 00:05 IST

I deplore the attack on the police personnel in Jammu.

from:
mostafa

Posted on: Sep 26, 2013 at 11:21 IST

please moderate the article first..begins with daredevil attack.

from:
indianFIRST

Posted on: Sep 26, 2013 at 11:19 IST

our government should take strict action against this attack on army personnel but in order to woo the vote bank of 18 percent of the total population ignoring the sacrifice of brave army personnel and trying to handover the internal security to the failed state.

from:
prashant kumar

Posted on: Sep 26, 2013 at 11:11 IST

@ABhishek..why should the writer be ashamed for calling it a 'daredevil' attack..the job of a journalist is to report facts without fear or favour..it is indeed a daredevil attack as halfmillion occupation troops cannot deter just 3 enemy fighters from penetrating army bases and senior indian army personnel were caught napping..just venting anger will not solve anything..there needs to be a political solution to the problem and not a military one..if indian agents attack some base across the border that would also be called a daredevil attack or would you be ashamed of such a thing?? Learn to respect independent journalism and avoid hypocrisy

from:
Plain Talker

Posted on: Sep 26, 2013 at 09:35 IST

We don't have the kind of leadership that can proactively work on stabilizing the Kashmir region. Congress govt has no vision, its only going through motions and reacting on the events ....We need a proactive and visionary PM , this is the only solution... Lets vote wisely this time.

from:
Ranjeet

Posted on: Sep 26, 2013 at 08:51 IST

I wonder how these so called militants easily pass through the line of control and kill innocent people of our country. Maybe the police and or army personnel should be provided with bullet proof dress and sophisticated weapons to combat terrorism. I hope the government will provide such utilities to them.

from:
jaba

Posted on: Sep 26, 2013 at 08:09 IST

Better find a political solution. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Peace will be economic growth to the country's poor and oppressed.

from:
Indian

Posted on: Sep 26, 2013 at 06:58 IST

Our PM is doing peace talks with Pak , but fact is these terrorists are not even in their control . Their Army is not under their Gov's control. What will be output of such meeting ?

from:
anil

Posted on: Sep 26, 2013 at 06:44 IST

It is simply shocking how the militants can attack where and when they want. Only advantage of the indian army is numbers. Poverty will ensure we always have a large army.

from:
Barry

Posted on: Sep 26, 2013 at 05:35 IST

one solution to avoid such misidentity is to provide RFID plates to each one of our soliders and can be monitored through System. If any person who approaches post if there is no RFID alert/beep, such people can be found out easily and captured/attacked.

from:
murthyb58%40rediffmail.com

Posted on: Sep 26, 2013 at 05:22 IST

The writer quotes the attack as daredevil. What is daredevil in terrorists attacking Indian nationals in surprise. The author should be ashamed of himself for using the word. Terrorists are well known to be fascist. And they should be dealt with heavy hand. But the question is when will Indian government wake up from its sleep. No where else would there be a government who does not care for its own people.

from:
Abhishek

Posted on: Sep 26, 2013 at 04:47 IST

first of all we have to decide after so many years of independence should we actually wants peace and harmony among us or we are more interested in caste and religion.we should be strong enough to face all bad things who destroy peace.must be a strong policy.